Lakeland hosts Walled Lake Northern on Friday

Pride and bragging rights are on the line Friday in the Battle of Bogie Lake hosted by Lakeland.

If the Eagles needed a bit more incentive, it’s also homecoming with Walled Lake Northern taking the 1.1-mile trip up the road.

“It’s good that it’s a homecoming game for us, too,” coach John Maltese said. “The kids get all excited to play in front of the homecoming stands.

“You won’t know what the records of the teams are if you walk into the stadium and watch the game.”

The Knights broke through for a big season last year, with a trip to the state playoffs behind an incredibly potent offense which put up video-game-like stats.

This season, Northern has struggled to a 2-4 record and has yet to win a game in division play. The Knights’ two wins came in the season’s first two weeks, 34-12 over Bloomfield Hills and 33-27 over Livonia Stevenson.

Since then, it’s four straight losses for Northern, including a 42-21 setback to Walled Lake Western last week.

Northern’s defense has struggled to contain teams, but the offense is still capable of putting up big points, as proven in a 50-43 loss to Kettering.

“They have a high-octane offense that is doing some good things,” Maltese said. “Their spread is a little different than what other teams try to do. They like to run the inside and outside options. The other ones are more throwing and using bubble screens.

“It makes you become fundamentally sound defensively. You have to make sure who is taking away the fullback, who is taking away the quarterback and who is taking away the pitch.”

Both teams came into the season with high hopes, but Maltese thinks his team is pressing in certain areas. If someone makes a mistake, someone else might stray from their assignment to try to help, but you can’t do that without making yet another area vulnerable.

“We need to have more consistent and better efforts for the whole 48 minutes,” Maltese said. “When we do that, we’ll win games.”